After looking at the specs that the Oregon County Fair Embassy posted about wireless internet access on the playa, I'm thinking of buying a WiFi PCMCIA card. I also need it for my regular work so it's going to see lots of use. My question is: Does anyone have any brand preferences for the type of card that works best both on playa and off? I'm doing my research but I'd like to hear recommendations from BM participants who actually use the cards. I've heard some horror stories and that's why I'm asking for advice.

Tell you what though, my friend had a card, and we could see the weather.
So we stayed a day later because we found out it was not going to rain and trap our airplane. I loved it, because it took the pressure off me.

I'm leaning towards Cisco as the first choice, D-Link as the second. When I can't carry a laptop and have to use the PDA, I'd like to have a choice besides the PCS aircard. The aircard is all Sprint's which means I don't like using it for my personal use. There's that little legal thing about Sprint owning any work I do with their equipment...that won't work.

De Facto, I haven't had time to check on too much. I was out today, and besides a few hours of Tee-Kill-Ya time now, I have ren fest and regional decompression coming up on Saturday. Next week once things calm down I'll look into it. And thanks for giving me another reason to upgrade to Pocket PC 2003. I've been hesitating on it...now it's time.

And Zona's post is reason #1 why the iPAQ will have a card next year. I hate weather surprises.

DVD Burner wrote:I am somewhat of a techie and this thread has peaked my interest about the wifi and ipv6.What is ipv6?

when in doubt always go to the wkipedia first
http://en2.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPv6IPv6 is version 6 of the Internet Protocol.
IPv6 is intended to replace the previous standard,
IPv4, which only supports up to about 4 billion (4 × 109) addresses,
whereas IPv6 supports up to about 3.4 × 1038 addresses.

I don't want to be connected at BRC, but if I did I would bring/build one of those 'cantennaes'. 10 mile range and they cost about $5 to build. they are highly directional, but you just need to figure out where to point it once and fix it.

Kinetic II wrote:After looking at the specs that the Oregon County Fair Embassy posted about wireless internet access on the playa, I'm thinking of buying a WiFi PCMCIA card. I also need it for my regular work so it's going to see lots of use. My question is: Does anyone have any brand preferences for the type of card that works best both on playa and off? I'm doing my research but I'd like to hear recommendations from BM participants who actually use the cards. I've heard some horror stories and that's why I'm asking for advice.

I haven't been to BM yet, but here's my two-cents on 802.11b:

I've been very happy with my SMC 2532W-B card. It puts out 200mw plus the little plastic end with the antennas inside can be removed to use an external antenna. The extra power insures that I can usually work any access point that the card can hear.

Unless you're really close to the access points you'll probably have to get your antenna up in the air and line-of-sight to the access point's antenna. When I go out driving to do "signal surveys" I use a 5.5db magnet mounted antenna from Jefa Tech that seems to do a pretty good job. You can roll-your-own antenna, but unless you're used to working with really tiny exotic rf connectors you'll end up spending as much on a pigtail adaptor and quality coax for your antenna as you would spend on an inexpensive factory built antenna.

I still haven't decided if I'll risk my PC laptop on the Playa or take an old clamshell iBook instead. Since the iBook doesn't have any external slots and the 802.11b card is buried under the keyboard using an external antenna is out of the question. I am thinking that I would buy one of the newer USB-to-802.11 devices and run a USB extension cable (max length for usb is around 16ft) from the computer up a short pole in order to get a signal.

I brought my laptop and used it mostly in my truck, no problems ( just keep it protected and away from the playa dust as carefully as possible) ...had an external backfire antenna on my engenis 802.11B card worked fine but the sat connection had alot of problems last year....down alot...I hope they get it together this year..

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believe is false."- William Casey, CIA Director 1981